1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a server apparatus and a system for providing device drivers and application softwares. The server apparatus and the system for providing device drivers and application softwares are used to provide, from the server apparatus to a user terminal, programs and data that are necessary for using various devices, such as printers, and application softwares at the user terminal.
2. Description of Related Art
A printing system, in which a plurality of user terminals (consisting of PCs) and a plurality of printers are connected via a network and the printers are shared by users using the user terminals, is widely used in offices where routine office works are performed. However, when the number of printers connected to the network is large, it can be troublesome to obtain a device driver compatible with a printer assigned to each user. It is therefore desirable to have a system in which a suitable device driver can be easily obtained.
To address such demand, a system for providing a required device deriver to a user terminal by using a web server has been disclosed (see Related Art 1). In particular, in this system, a function for building a device driver according to specification information of a user terminal is implemented in the web server, and a predetermined device driver possessing a user-interface and functions that are suitable for a use environment of the user terminal can be provided to the user terminal at low cost.
[Related Art 1] Japanese Patent Laid Open Publication 2004-110678
However, according to the above-mentioned conventional technology, after a user terminal is provided with a device driver from the web server, a configuration process, such as a process for specifying printers assigned to a user, is still necessary in order to build a use environment required at the user terminal. In particular, when the number of printers connected to the network is large, or when the types of usage of the printers are restricted, the configuration process can be cumbersome. It is therefore desirable to have a system in which installation and configuration of a device driver can be easily performed at a user terminal.
Further, when a use environment at a user terminal is configured in such a way as to restrict the types of usage of printers according to work assignments of a user, for example, to permit only predetermined users to use expensive color printing, or to require all users to use double-sided printing for the purpose of paper saving, it is effective in reducing the overall cost of the printing system. However, when the installation of device drivers necessary for using the printers and the configuration for building the use environment are performed freely at user's choice, it is no longer possible to manage the printers in a way an administrator would like to operate. It is therefore desirable to have a system in which the use environment of the printers at a user terminal can be suitably built according to specifications given by the administrator.
When installing an application software to a user terminal, in the same way as in the case of a device driver described-above, an effort is required to obtain from the administrator the application software and information required for installing the software. It is therefore desirable to have a system in which the installation of the application software to the user terminal can be easily performed. Further, in order to properly manage the system so that the installation of an application software to a user terminal will not be performed freely at user's choice, the burden on the administrator side is increased. It is therefore desirable to have a system in which the use environment of the application software at a user terminal is suitably built according to specifications given by the administrator.